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author, or having, by long conversation with him, planted in his soul a thorough and lively idea of that of Plutarch, at least he has lent him nothing that either contradicts or dishonours him ;) but what I am most pleased with him for is the discreet choice he has made of so noble and useful a book to make a present of to his country. We ignorant people had been undone had not this book raised us out of the mire ; by its favour we dare both speak and write; by it the ladies are able to school their schoolmasters; 'tis our breviary. If this good man lived, I would desire him to do as much for Xenophon; 'tis a much easier task than the other, and consequently more proper for his age. And besides, I know not how, but methinks, though he briskly and clearly enough gets over steps another would have stumbled at, that nevertheless his style is more his own where he does not encounter those difficulties, and rolls on at its ease.

I was just now reading that passage where Plutarch says of himself, that Rusticus, being present at a declamation of his in Rome, he there received a packet from the emperor, and deferred to open it till all was over; for which, says he, all the company highly applauded the gravity of this person. "Tis true, that his discourse being upon Curiosity, and that eager passion for news which makes us, with so much indiscretion and impatience, quit all things to entertain a new comer, and, without any manner of respect or civility, tear open on a sudden, in what company soever, the letters that are delivered to us, he had reason to applaud the gravity of Rusticus upon this occasion; and might moreover have added to it the commendation of his civility and courtesy, that would not interrupt the course of his declamation. But I doubt whether any one can commend his prudence; for, receiving unexpected letters, and especially from an emperor, it might well have fallen out that the deferring to read them might have been of great prejudice. The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence, to which I naturally incline, and which I have seen

Negligence the opposite vice to curiosity.

some men so extremely guilty of that one might have found the letters that had been sent to them three or four days before, still sealed up in their pockets.

I never opened any letters directed to another, not merely those entrusted with me, but even such as chance has placed in my hand; and am annoyed if my eyes unawares steal any contents of letters of importance which a great man is reading when I stand near him. Never was man less inquisitive, or less prying into other men's affairs than I am.

In our fathers' days Monsieur de Boutieres had liked to have lost Turin from neglecting, he having company at that time with him at supper, to read an information that was sent him of a conspiracy against the city where he commanded. And this very Plutarch tells me that Julius Cæsar had preserved himself, if, in going to the Senate the day he was assassinated by the conspirators, he had read a paper that was presented to him by the way; and he tells also the story of Archias, tyrant of Thebes, that the night before the execution of the design Pelopidas had laid to kill him, to restore his country to liberty, he had an account sent him in writing by another Archias, an Athenian, of the whole conspiracy, and that this packet having been delivered to him while he sat at supper, he deferred the opening of it, saying, which afterwards became a proverb in Greece," Business to-morrow." 1

A wise man may, I confess, out of respect to another, as not indecorously to disturb the company, as Rusticus did, or not to break off another affair of importance in hand, defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought him; but if for his own interest or particular pleasure, especially if he be a public minister, he will not interrupt his dinner, or break his sleep, he is inexcusable. And there was anciently at Rome the Consular Place, as they called it, which was the most honourable at the table, for being a place The consular of most liberty, and of more convenient access most accessible. 1 Plutarch, On the Damon of Socrates.

place at table the

to those who came in to talk with the person seated there.1 By which it appears that, though at meals, they did not totally abandon the concern of other affairs. But, when all is said, it is very hard in human actions to give so exact a rule, upon the best grounds of reason, that Fortune will not have a hand in them, and maintain her own right.

CHAPTER V.

OF CONSCIENCE.

THE Sieur de la Brousse, my brother, and I, travelling one day together during the time of our civil wars, met a gentleman of good mien. He was of the contrary party to ours, though I did not know so much, for he pretended otherwise; and the mischief is that, in this sort of war, the cards are so shuffled, an enemy not being distinguishable from a friend by any apparent mark, either of language or habit, nourished under the same laws, air, and manners, that it is very hard to avoid disorder and confusion. This made me afraid myself of meeting any of our troops in a place where I was not known, that I might not be in fear to tell my name, and peradventure of something worse; as it has befallen me before, where, by one of these mistakes, I lost both men and horses; and, amongst others, an Italian gentleman, my page, whom I had bred with the greatest care and affection, was miserably killed-in whom a promising youth of great expectation was blasted. But the gentleman that my brother and I met had so strange a fear upon him at the meeting of any horse, or passing by any of the towns belonging to the king, that I at last discovered them to be alarms of conscience, and the 1 Plutarch, Table-Talk.

poor man seemed to be in such a condition as if through his vizard, and the crosses upon his cassock, one might have penetrated into his bosom, and read the most secret intentions of his heart. So wonderful is the power of conscience, that it makes us betray, accuse, and fight against ourselves; and, for want of other witnesses, to give evidence against ourselves,

Occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum.1

"Whom conscience, ne'er asleep,

Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep."

This story is in every child's mouth: Bessus, the Pæonian, being reproached with wantonness, for pulling down a nest of young sparrows and killing them, replied he had reason so to do, seeing that those little birds never ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of his father. This parricide had till then been concealed and unknown, but the revenging fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by himself, who was justly to suffer for it.2 Hesiod corrects the saying of Plato, "That punishment closely follows sin;" it being, Punishment conas he says, born at the same time with it.3 nate with sin. Whoever expects punishment, already suffers it; whoever has deserved it, expects it. Wickedness contrives torments against itself: Malum consilium, consultori pessimum :5 “ Ill designs fall out worse to the contriver;" as the wasp stings and offends another, but most of all itself; for it there loses its sting and its power for ever,

Vitasque in vulnere ponunt.6

"And in the wound which they inflict expire."

Cantharides have somewhere about them, by a contrariety of nature, a counterpoison against their poison. In like manner, at the same time that we take delight in vice, there

1 Juvenal, xiii. 195.

Plutarch, On Divine Justice.

3 Ibid.

4 Seneca, Epist. 105.

5 Apud Aul. Gell. iv. 5.

6 Virg. Georg. iv. 238. Plutarch, on Divine Justice.

springs in the conscience a displeasure that afflicts us sleeping and waking with many tormenting imaginations:—

Quippe ubi se multi, per somnia sæpe loquentes,

Aut morbo delirantes, protraxe ferantur,

Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse.1

"The guilty seldom their own counsel keep,

But oft will blab it ev'n in their sleep;

Or, in a fever raging, will reveal

Crimes which they long had labour'd to conceal."

Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians, and after boiled in a cauldron, and that his heart muttered these words: "I am the cause of all these mischiefs that have befallen thee." 2 Epicurus said that no hidingplace can conceal the wicked, since they can never assure themselves of being hid, for their consciences discover them to themselves.

Prima est hæc ultio, quod se

Judice nemo nocens absolvitur.4

"Tis the first constant punishment of sin,
That no bad man absolves himself within."

As an ill conscience fills us with fear, so a good one gives us greater confidence and assurance; and I can truly say that I have gone through several hazards with a more steady pace, in consideration of the secret knowledge I had of my own will, and the innocence of my intentions:

Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra
Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo.5

"Despotic conscience rules our hopes and fears."

Of this there are a thousand examples; but it will be enough to instance three of one and the same person. Scipio being one day accused before the people of Rome of a heavy crime, instead of excusing himself, or flattering the judges:

Lucret. v. 1157.

2 Plutarch, of the Delay of the Divine Justice, c. 9. This Apollodorus, who reigned like a true tyrant, was King of Cassandria, in Macedonia.

3 Seneca, Epist. 97.
4 Juvenal, xiii. 2.
5 Ovid. Fast. i. 5, 25.

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